You're All I Need

SIX

Portia POV

I walk into geography and am one of the last people into the class, again. I turn down to the row I was sitting in before and am immediately met with eye contact from Gabby. Not a strong eye contact, but a friendly one. I pace over to my seat and the bell rings. I immediately sit down and Gabby is still staring at me. "What?" I ask. "Is Ellen your friend?" "More if an acquaintance." Actually, Ellen was my friend. The door to the classroom opens and the counselor opens the door. "Hey, Mrs. Royse, can I talk to you?" "Yeah, be right there." Mrs. Royse puts away some papers and speeds to the door, and then steps outside. Gabby leans back over to me. "Do you like Ellen?" "As a person, sure." "You do know that she's a low lying, selfish, inhuman creature, right?" "Huh?" "She's just a liar, a faker, a no good for anything dyke." "What?" "Yeah, that's all she is. She will use you if you're not careful enough." "What do you mean by use?" "Turn you. She will turn you into something you're not. At least, I hope you're not." I gulp. "Ha, no way.." I frown with the corners of my mouth for a second.

I run out of geography and stop by my locker, and then speed to drama. I get to my seat and frantically tap my foot. I wait for Ellen to walk in, and she does. "H-Hey!" I greet her, my tone shaking. I'm worried about what Gabby said, even though its probably all fake. "Aye." She replies, sitting down. "Are you still fine?" "Yeah, I'm good." "Alright, if you say so." We both sit there in silence, but I'm still frantically tapping my foot. Ellen looks under our desks and looks at my foot. "Portia.." "Hm?" "What's bothering you." She says seriously, looking at me straight in the eyes. I'm struck by her eyes, staring into them for a second. "Can we talk about it on the weekend?" "Sure." Ellen says, smiling. "I smirk and my eyes are immediately drawn from her eyes to the boys behind Ellen making kissy lips and heart shapes with their hands. My face turns sour and I look at the door, away from the boys. Ellen looks behind herself and sees them. "Are you guys making love to one another back there? Sure seems like it." Ellen taps my shoulder and I turn to look at her. "Ignore them." I glance back at them for a second and then look straight in front of me. "I'm not turning." Including what Gabby said. "Exactly." "Hello drama class, whatever hour this is." Mrs. Grau says.

Barging out the school doors towards the bus, Ellen shouts bye. I give her a wave and shout bye back, and then get on the bus. Gabby somehow is the first one on though. "Oh, hey.." I gulp. "Who were you waving to?" "Uh, what's her name.. Jamie." "Jamie?" "Yeah, Jamie." "What Jamie? There's like five hundred of them." "Saylor..." "Oh, her?" Gabby narrows her eyes. "Come sit here." She pats the end if her seat. I go and slowly sit down, putting my backpack on my lap. Gabby leans close to me. Whispering, "Don't you lie to me. I'm not that stupid." I pull my face away from hers and stare at her with confusion. "What do you mean, lie?" "I saw who you were talking to, don't act like I didn't." "What's wrong with talking to Ellen?" "Just.. just don't do it." "Okay.." There was a pause in our conversation. "And if I do talk to her, what's going to happen?" "Bad, bad, bad things." I just shrugged and noticed that the bus was packed and ready to leave the school.

Getting close to my house, Gabby taps my shoulder and I look at her. "Remember.. just don't." "Alright then, I won't." We pull up to my house. I get up and hop off the bus. It drives away, but I just stand there. Thinking. Once I finish thinking, I go inside and put away my backpack. I then go back outside and go in the garage. I look for some sidewalk chalk and find a box of some that I've had since I was nine years old. The colors were hard to determine because the pieces were all covered in the other chalk colors so they all looked grey, but it would work. I took the box to the middle if the driveway and just started drawing whatever came to my mind. I drew a stick figure with medium short hair talking to another stick figure with long hair that was in a pony tail, and then off to the right side I drew the same person again with the medium long hair curled up in a ball crying. I took a piece if chalk that looked as if it were blue and drew a giant oval below the curled up stick figures head and colored it in. I then drew a person with short hair sitting next to the stick figure curled up in a ball crying to their right trying to comfort them. Then, I drew a sign with a happy face on it and made the crying person hold it up and showing the short haired person. I then labeled each person from left to right. Me. Gabby. Me. Ellen. I stood up and looked at what I had made. My knees were all dusty and so were my hands, so I walked over to the side of the house and grabbed the gardening hose. I rinsed off my hands and padded my knees, but then dragged the hose over to the drawing. I splashed the water all over it. The chalk started to run down the driveway, making the tears look like actual tears. I went back and turned off the hose and put it back, then going to the drawing. I took my foot and smudged it all then took the box of chalk into the garage, put it away, and went inside.